Analysis: HBO’s “The Last of Us” Proves There’s Still Room for Zombie Apocalypse Drama

The spotty history of video game adaptations and the abundance of zombie apocalyptic dramas get a welcome boost with “The Last of Us,” which proves there’s room for more of each, as long as it’s that good.

A series with mini-dramas inserted into the episodes, HBO’s production quickly proves worthy of the hype and expectation by offering a well-executed series with flesh-and-blood characters.

Of course, we’ve been down this particular road before, featuring a world rapidly descending into chaos, after a pandemic has turned people into zombies, spurring the government’s attempts to contain the spread in the most relentless of ways.

Series creators Craig Mazin (Emmy winner for “Chernobyl”) and Neil Druckmann (co-president of award-winning game makers, Naughty Dog) initially build this story around one family, expanding to chronicle the ramifications of the outbreak. around the world, with a 20-year-old palette to choose from.

Thanks to this ambitious approach, “The Last of Us” sometimes functions as an anthology series, focusing on individual stories and detours, like a “Doomsday” prepper (Nick Offerman) taking in a drifter (“The White Lotus ” Murray Bartlett), begrudgingly at first, in an hour that has the exquisite feel of a meticulously crafted small piece.

The backbone of the production, however, involves Joel (Pedro Pascal, thankfully without a helmet), who is tasked with reluctantly escorting teenage Ellie (“Game of Thrones'” Bella Ramsey) to a facility in the country, with the hope of your immunity to infection and contain the means of curing the zombie’s affliction.

Both protagonists are excellent, with details about their lives gradually emerging along the way. On the one hand, Ellie was born into the brutality of this apocalyptic landscape, so when she’s confronted with something that provides a taste of past normality, her response usually falls somewhere on the spectrum from admiration to sheer delight.

As is often the case in these kinds of stories (see “The Walking Dead” at the beginning), the real threat isn’t the zombies, which aren’t particularly distinctive, but rather what people will do when the structure of society crumbles.

From that perspective, the narrative here is absolutely fearless and unflinching, creating gruesome scenarios and moments that can be alternately touching and downright tragic.

Mild escapism this is not, and the level of violence is not for the faint of heart. Still, there’s a genuine humanity to the bond that forms between Joel and Ellie, one that grows organically from one harrowing encounter to the next, all the while creating strong showcases for the guest stars that pass through their orbits.

The timing certainly works for HBO, which recently said goodbye to “Westworld,” another sci-fi series that predicted an unsettling future.

“The Last of Us” is just the latest iteration of imagining a world gone mad, emphasizing the personal dramas that play out against this backdrop. However, despite the limits of past TV and film game translations, the first season exhibits the kind of delicacy and depth that suggests we won’t see the last one for some time.